Aging Our Way

Loe, Meika. Aging Our Way: Lessons for Living from 85 and Beyond. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Call no.: 646.79 L822a

Publisher's Description: In 1998, Hallmark unveiled their new "One-Hundredth-Birthday" cards, and
by 2007 annual sales were at 85,000. America is rapidly graying:
between now and 2030, the number of people in the U.S. over the age of
80 is expected to almost triple. But how long people live raises the
question of how well they live.

Aging Our Way
follows the everyday lives of 30 elders (ages 85-102) living at home
and mostly alone to understand how they create and maintain meaningful
lives for themselves. Drawing on the latest interdisciplinary
scholarship on aging and three years of interviews with the elders,
Meika Loe explores how elders navigate the practical challenges of
living as independently as possible while staying healthy, connected,
and comfortable. While most books on the subject treat old age as a
social problem and elders as simply diminished versions of their former
selves, Aging Our Way views them
as they really are: lively, complicated, engaging people finding
creative ways to make their aging as meaningful and manageable as
possible. In their own voices, elders describe how they manage
everything from grocery shopping, doctor appointments, and disability,
to creating networks of friends and maintaining their autonomy. In many
ways, these elders can serve as role models. The lessons they have
learned about living in moderation, taking time for themselves, asking
for help, keeping a sense of humor, caring for others, and preparing for
death provide an invaluable source of wisdom for anyone hoping to live a
long and fulfilling life. Through their stories, Loe helps us to think
about aging, well-being, and the value of human relationships in new
ways.

Written with remarkable warmth and depth of understanding, Aging Our Way
offers a vivid look at a group of people who too often remain
invisible--those who have lived the longest--and all they have to teach
us.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Understanding Iran

Polk, William R. Understanding Iran: Everything You Need to Know, From Persia to the Islamic Republic, From Cyrus to Ahmadinejad. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Call no.: 955 P749u

Publisher's Description: William R. Polk provides an informative, readable history of a country which is moving quickly toward becomingthe
dominant power and culture of the Middle East. A former member of the
State Department’s Policy Planning Council, Polk describes a country and
a history misunderstood by many in the West. While Iranians chafe under
the yolk of their current leaders, they also have bitter memories of
generations of British, Russian and American espionage, invasion, and
dominance. There are important lessons to be learned from the past, and
Polk teases them out of a long and rich history and shows that it is not
just now, but for decades to come that an understanding of Iran will be
essential to American safety and well-being.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Orthodoxy

Chesterton, G. K. Orthodoxy. New York: Doubleday, 2001.

Call no.: FDC 239.9 C420o

Publisher's Description: Chesterton's timeless exploration of the essentials of Christian faith
and of his pilgrimage to belief (more than 750,000 copies sold in the
Image edition) is now reissued with an incisive Introduction by
bestselling author Philip Yancey.

For G.K. Chesterton, orthodoxy carries us into the land of romance, right action, and revolution. In Orthodoxy,
a classic in religious autobiography, he tells of his pilgrimage there
by way of the doctrines of Christianity set out in the Apostles' Creed.

Where
science seeks to explain all things in terms of calculation and
necessary law, Chesterton argues on behalf of the Christian doctrines of
mystery and free will. Sanity, he says, belongs to the poet who accepts
the romance and drama of these beliefs rather than to the logician who
does not. This sanity is not static. It does not mean merely learning
the right doctrines and then lapsing into a refined meditation on them.
Chesterton dismisses such an inactive belief as "the greatest disaster
of the nineteenth century." For him, right thinking is a waste without
right action.

For Chesterton the populist, political ction often
spells revolution. He discovers in the doctrines of original sin and the
divinity of Christ ever-present seedbeds of revolt in the face of the
tyrannies of money and power.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Midnight on the Line

Gaynor, Tim. Midnight on the Line: The Secret Life of the U.S.-Mexico Border. New York: Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's, 2009.

Call no.: 364.137 G256mPublisher's Description:A probing, ground-level investigation of illegal
immigration and the people on both sides of the battle to secure the
U.S.–Mexico border.

With illegal immigration
burning as a contentious issue in American politics, Reuters reporter
Tim Gaynor went into the underbelly of the border and to the heart of
illegal immigration: along the 45-mile trek down the illegal alien
“superhighway.” Through scorpion-strewn trails with Mexican migrants and
drug smugglers, he met up with a legendary group of Native American
trackers called the Shadow Wolves, and traveled through the extensive
network of tunnels, including the “Great Tunnel” from Tijuana to Otay
Mesa, California. Along the way, Gaynor also meets Minutemen and exposes
corruption among the Border Patrol agents who exchange sex or money for
helping smugglers.

The issue of illegal immigration has a
complexity beyond any of the political rhetoric. Combining top-notch
investigative journalism with a narrative style that delves into the
human condition, Gaynor reveals the day-to-day realities on both sides
of “the line.”

Friday, April 26, 2013

A High Price

Byman, Daniel. A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Call no.: 363.325 B994h

Publisher's Description: The product of painstaking research and countless interviews, A High Price
offers a nuanced, definitive historical account of Israel's bold but
often failed efforts to fight terrorist groups. Beginning with the
violent border disputes that emerged after Israel's founding in 1948,
Daniel Byman charts the rise of Yasir Arafat's Fatah and leftist groups
such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine--organizations
that ushered in the era of international terrorism epitomized by the
1972 hostage-taking at the Munich Olympics. Byman reveals how Israel
fought these groups and others, such as Hamas, in the decades that
follow, with particular attention to the grinding and painful struggle
during the second intifada. Israel's debacles in Lebanon against groups
like the Lebanese Hizballah are examined in-depth, as is the country's
problematic response to Jewish terrorist groups that have struck at
Arabs and Israelis seeking peace. In surveying Israel's response to
terror, the author points to the coups of shadowy Israeli intelligence
services, the much-emulated use of defensive measures such as sky
marshals on airplanes, and the role of controversial techniques such as
targeted killings and the security barrier that separates Israel from
Palestinian areas. Equally instructive are the shortcomings that have
undermined Israel's counterterrorism goals, including a disregard for
long-term planning and a failure to recognize the long-term political
repercussions of counterterrorism tactics.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

We Must Not Be Afraid to Be Free

Collins, Ronald K. L. and Chaltain, Sam. We Must Not Be Afraid to Be Free: Stories of Free Expression in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Call no.: 342.730853 C696w

Publisher's Description: In a stinging dissent to a 1961 Supreme Court decision that allowed the
Illinois state bar to deny admission to prospective lawyers if they
refused to answer political questions, Justice Hugo Black closed with
the memorable line, "We must not be afraid to be free." Black saw the
First Amendment as the foundation of American freedom--the guarantor of
all other Constitutional rights. Yet since free speech is by nature
unruly, people fear it. The impulse to curb or limit it has been a
constant danger throughout American history.

In We Must Not Be Afraid to Be Free,
Ron Collins and Sam Chaltain, two noted free speech scholars and
activists, provide authoritative and vivid portraits of free speech in
modern America. The authors offer a series of engaging accounts of
landmark First Amendment cases, including bitterly contested cases
concerning loyalty oaths, hate speech, flag burning, student anti-war
protests, and McCarthy-era prosecutions. The book also describes the
colorful people involved in each case--the judges, attorneys, and
defendants--and the issues at stake. Tracing the development of free
speech rights from a more restrictive era--the early twentieth
century--through the Warren Court revolution of the 1960s and beyond,
Collins and Chaltain not only cover the history of a cherished ideal,
but also explain in accessible language how the law surrounding this
ideal has changed over time.

Essential for anyone interested in this most fundamental of our rights, We Must Not Be Afraid to Be Free provides a definitive and lively account of our First Amendment and the price courageous Americans have paid to secure them.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Europe's Angry Muslims

Leiken, Robert S. Europe's Angry Muslims: The Revolt of the Second Generation. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Call no.: 908.8297 L533e

Publisher's Description: Bombings in London, riots in Paris, terrorists in Germany, fury over
mosques, veils and cartoons--such headlines underscore the tensions
between Muslims and their European hosts. Did too much immigration, or
too little integration, produce Muslim second-generation anger? Is that
rage imported or spawned inside Europe itself? What do the conflicts
between Muslims and their European hosts portend for an America
encountering its own angry Muslims?

Europe's Angry Muslims
traces the routes, expectations and destinies of immigrant parents and
the plight of their children, transporting both the general reader and
specialist from immigrants' ancestral villages to their strange
new-fangled enclaves in Europe. It guides readers through Islamic
nomenclature, chronicles the motive force of the Islamist narrative,
offers them lively portraits of jihadists (a convict, a convert, and a
community organizer) takes them inside radical mosques and into the
minds of suicide bombers. The author interviews former radicals and
security agents, examines court records and the sermons of radical imams
and draws on a lifetime of personal experience with militant movements
to present an account of the explosive fusion of Muslim immigration,
Islamist grievance and second-generation alienation.

Robert
Leiken shines an unsentimental and yet compassionate light on Islam's
growing presence in the West, combining in-depth reporting with
cutting-edge and far-ranging scholarship in an engaging narrative that
is both moving and mordant. Leiken's nuanced and authoritative
analysis--historical, sociological, theological and
anthropological--warns that "conflating rioters and Islamists, folk and
fundamentalist Muslims, pietists and jihadis, immigrants and their
children is the method of strategic incoherence--'in the night all cats
are black.'"

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Imagining the Middle East

Jacobs, Matthew F. Imagining the Middle East: The Building of an American Foreign Policy, 1918-1967. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011.

Call no.: 327.73056 J153i

Publisher's Description: As its interests have become deeply tied to the Middle East,
the United States has long sought to develop a usable understanding of
the people, politics, and cultures of the region. In Imagining the Middle East,
Matthew Jacobs illuminates how Americans' ideas and perspectives about
the region have shaped, justified, and sustained U.S. cultural,
economic, military, and political involvement there.

Jacobs
examines the ways in which an informal network of academic, business,
government, and media specialists interpreted and shared their
perceptions of the Middle East from the end of World War I through the
late 1960s. During that period, Jacobs argues, members of this network
imagined the Middle East as a region defined by certain common
characteristics--religion, mass politics, underdevelopment, and an
escalating Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict--and as a place that might
be transformed through U.S. involvement. Thus, the ways in which
specialists and policymakers imagined the Middle East of the past or
present came to justify policies designed to create an imagined Middle
East of the future. Jacobs demonstrates that an analysis of the
intellectual roots of current politics and foreign policy is critical to
comprehending the styles of U.S. engagement with the Middle East in a
post-9/11 world.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Family Pictures

Publisher's Description: New York Times bestseller Jane Green delivers a riveting novel about two women whose lives intersect when a shocking secret is revealed.

From the author of Another Piece of My Heart comes Family Pictures,
the gripping story of two women who live on opposite coasts but whose
lives are connected in ways they never could have imagined. Both women
are wives and mothers to children who are about to leave the nest for
school. They're both in their forties and have husbands who travel more
than either of them would like. They are both feeling an emptiness
neither had expected. But when a shocking secret is exposed, their
lives are blown apart. As dark truths from the past reveal themselves,
will these two women be able to learn to forgive, for the sake of their
children, if not for themselves?

War: What Is It Good For?

Phillips, Kimberley L. War! What Is It Good For?: Black Freedom Struggles and the U.S. Military From World War II to Iraq. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012.

Call no.: 355.0089 P544w

Publisher's Description: African Americans' long campaign for "the right to fight"
forced Harry Truman to issue his 1948 executive order calling for
equality of treatment and opportunity in the armed forces. In War! What Is It Good For?,
Kimberley Phillips examines how blacks' participation in the nation's
wars after Truman's order and their protracted struggles for equal
citizenship galvanized a vibrant antiwar activism that reshaped their
struggles for freedom.

Using an array of sources--from
newspapers and government documents to literature, music, and film--and
tracing the period from World War II to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars,
Phillips considers how federal policies that desegregated the military
also maintained racial, gender, and economic inequalities. Since 1945,
the nation's need for military labor, blacks' unequal access to
employment, and discriminatory draft policies have forced black men into
the military at disproportionate rates. While mainstream civil rights
leaders considered the integration of the military to be a civil rights
success, many black soldiers, veterans, and antiwar activists perceived
war as inimical to their struggles for economic and racial justice and
sought to reshape the civil rights movement into an antiwar black
freedom movement. Since the Vietnam War, Phillips argues, many African
Americans have questioned linking militarism and war to their concepts
of citizenship, equality, and freedom.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Quality with Soul

Publisher's Description: This book demonstrates that, despite much evidence to the contrary,
there are still Christian colleges and universities of high academic
quality that have also kept their religious heritages publicly relevant.
Respected scholar Robert Benne explores how six schools from six
different religious traditions (Calvin College, Wheaton College, St.
Olaf College, Valparaiso University, Baylor University, and the
University of Notre Dame) have maintained "quality with soul." These
constructive case studies examine the vision, ethos, and personnel
policies of each school, showing how--and why--its religious foundation
remains strong.

Friday, April 19, 2013

The Storyteller

Picoult, Jodi. The Storyteller. New York: Atria, 2013.

Call no.: F PIC

Publisher's Description:Some stories live forever . . .

Sage Singer is a baker.
She works through the night, preparing the day’s breads and pastries,
trying to escape a reality of loneliness, bad memories, and the shadow
of her mother’s death. When Josef Weber, an elderly man in Sage’s grief
support group, begins stopping by the bakery, they strike up an unlikely
friendship. Despite their differences, they see in each other the
hidden scars that others can’t, and they become companions.

Everything
changes on the day that Josef confesses a long-buried and shameful
secret—one that nobody else in town would ever suspect—and asks Sage for
an extraordinary favor. If she says yes, she faces not only moral
repercussions, but potentially legal ones as well. With her own identity
suddenly challenged, and the integrity of the closest friend she’s ever
had clouded, Sage begins to question the assumptions and expectations
she’s made about her life and her family. When does a moral choice
become a moral imperative? And where does one draw the line between
punishment and justice, forgiveness and mercy?

In this searingly
honest novel, Jodi Picoult gracefully explores the lengths we will go in
order to protect our families and to keep the past from dictating the
future.

Lincoln on War

Publisher's Description: President Lincoln used his own weapons—his words— to fight the Civil War
as brilliantly as any general who ever took the field. In Lincoln on War,
historian Harold Holzer gathers and interprets Lincoln’s speeches,
letters, memoranda, orders, telegrams, and casual remarks, organizing
them chronologically and allowing readers to experience Lincoln’s growth
from an eager young Indian War officer to a middle-aged dove
congressman to a surprisingly hardened and determined hawk as the
Union’s commander-in-chief.

We observe a man willing to sacrifice
life and treasure in unprecedented quantities, to risk wounding the
pride of vain generals, and even to mislead the public if it meant the
preservation of an unbreakable union of states, the destruction of
slavery, and the restoration of America as an example to inspire the
world. This volume covers strategy; tactics; the endless hiring,
sustaining, motivating, and dismissal of commanders; military
discipline; and military technology. Modern commanders-in-chief have
repeatedly quoted Lincoln to justify their own wars, so it behooves us
as citizens to know Lincoln’s record well. From masterpieces such as the
Gettysburg Address to lesser-known meditations on God’s purposes, Lincoln on War is the first book to highlight exclusively Lincoln’s sublime and enduring words on war.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Calling Me Home

Kibler, Julie. Calling Me Home. New York: St. Martin's, 2013.

Call no.: F KIB

Book Description:Sixteen-year-old
Isabelle McAllister longs to escape the confines of her northern
Kentucky hometown, but after her family's housekeeper's son rescues her
from a Newport drunk, the boundaries seem smaller than ever.

Falling
for a black boy in late 1930s Kentucky isn't just illegal, it's
dangerous. Signs at the city limits warn Negroes, “Don’t let the sun set
on you here.” Despite repeated warnings, Isabelle and Robert disregard
the racial divide, starting a chain of events that threatens jobs,
lives, and generations to come.

Decades
later, black hairstylist Dorrie Curtis agrees to drive her elderly
white client cross-country to a funeral. Over the years, Miss Isabelle
has become more than just a customer, but the timing couldn't be worse. First,
Dorrie's seeing a man she's afraid she could fall for, but one thing is
more obvious than ever: Trust is not her strong suit. Second, she knows
her teenager's in big trouble; he just hasn’t told her yet.

When
a phone call from home confirms Dorrie's fears, Miss Isabelle's tale of
forbidden love illuminates Dorrie’s dilemma, merging the past and
present in a journey with unexpected detours and a bittersweet
destination.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Ghana Must Go

Selasi, Taiye. Ghana Must Go. New York: Penguin, 2013.

Call No.: F SEL

Publisher's Description: Kweku Sai is dead. A renowned surgeon and failed husband, he succumbs
suddenly at dawn outside his home in suburban Accra. The news of Kweku’s
death sends a ripple around the world, bringing together the family he
abandoned years before. Ghana Must Go is their story. Electric,
exhilarating, beautifully crafted, Ghana Must Go is a testament to the
transformative power of unconditional love, from a debut novelist of
extraordinary talent.

Moving with great elegance through time and place, Ghana Must Go charts
the Sais’ circuitous journey to one another. In the wake of Kweku’s
death, his children gather in Ghana at their enigmatic mother’s new
home. The eldest son and his wife; the mysterious, beautiful twins; the
baby sister, now a young woman: each carries secrets of his own. What is
revealed in their coming together is the story of how they came apart:
the hearts broken, the lies told, the crimes committed in the name of
love. Splintered, alone, each navigates his pain, believing that what
has been lost can never be recovered—until, in Ghana, a new way forward,
a new family, begins to emerge.

Ghana Must Go is at
once a portrait of a modern family, and an exploration of the importance
of where we come from to who we are. In a sweeping narrative that takes
us from Accra to Lagos to London to New York, Ghana Must Go teaches that the truths we speak can heal the wounds we hide.

Ten Tortured Words

Publisher's Description: In the steamy summer of 1787, as America's founding fathers fashioned
their Constitution, they told the most powerful institution in their
new nation what it must not do:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

Few Americans understand the miracle in world history these ten words
represent. For the first time in human experience, the legislative
power of a nation was forbidden from legislating the conscience of man.
And for over one hundred and fifty years, religion flourished,
institutions of faith multiplied, and revivals transformed whole
communities. Th elected representatives of the people often called for
days of prayer, recognizing that religion is essential to national
character.

So what happened? Why is it that today a cross-shaped memorial or a
religious symbol in a city seal is considered a violation of the
Constitution? Why are pastors threatened if they speak out about
politics and children kept from even asking about religion in the public
schools?

Ten Tortured Words separates historical fact from fiction,
illuminating the events and personalities that shaped the writing of the
Establishment Clause. In his straightforward, award-winning style,
cultural historian Stephen Mansfield interprets the societal shifts that
have led to the current rift between religion and politics, and takes a
surprising look at what lies ahead for freedom of religion in America.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

God's Pursuit of Man

Publisher's Description: Tozer's profound "prequel" to The Pursuit of God. Previously published
as The Divine Conquest and The Pursuit of Man, WingSpread Publishers has
released this book with a new title that better describes Tozer's
original intention for this book. Although written two years after the
publication of The Pursuit of God, Tozer's God's Pursuit of Man speaks
fervently of God's desire for man to be saved and the action He takes as
He "invades" the human soul. A beautiful new cover will reach a whole
new generation of readers.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Castles

Call no.: 728.81 C279sPublisher's Description: While
the word “castle” conjures up an image of the classic medieval stone
edifice, resplendent with towers and turrets, battlements and barbicans,
and the odd oubliette, the impulse to build defensive works is as old
as civilization itself; and the evolution of such architecture not only
encompasses global cultures but is also a physical expression of the
changing face of military tactics and technology.

Castles takes
a uniquely architectural approach to deconstructing all forms of
fortification, showing how the work of architect, stonemason, and
engineer evolved to repel the increasingly destructive power of an
attack, from siege engine to artillery. While the medieval castle is
analyzed in detail, the book addresses a broad chronology of
defenses—from the earliest fortresses and walled cities of the ancient
world through to the point in the 19th century when modern weapons
forced armies underground. Castles uses stylish two-tone
engravings to dissect a wealth of examples from both western and eastern
cultures; “anatomies” that annotate the classic structures for both
their architectural and military significance; and “Then and Now”
features that offer unique comparisons between castles in their pomp as
depicted in illuminated manuscripts, mosaics, maps, and paintings, and
matching color photographs of those same castles as they appear today.
This architectural review of soaring towers and redoubtable walls
provides both a fascinating narrative and an essential visual reference
for the general and military historian.

Friday, April 12, 2013

The Sound of Broken Glass

Crombie, Deborah. The Sound of Broken Glass. New York: William Morrow, 2013.

Call No.: F CRO

Publisher's Description: In the past . . .

On a blisteringly hot August afternoon in Crystal Palace, once home to
the tragically destroyed Great Exhibition, a solitary thirteen-year-old
boy meets his next-door neighbor, a recently widowed young teacher
hoping to make a new start in the tight-knit South London community.
Drawn together by loneliness, the unlikely pair forms a deep connection
that ends in a shattering act of betrayal.

In the present . . .

On a cold January morning in London, Detective Inspector Gemma James is
back on the job now that her husband, Detective Superintendent Duncan
Kincaid, is at home to care for their three-year-old foster daughter.
Assigned to lead a Murder Investigation Team in South London, she's
assisted by her trusted colleague, newly promoted Detective Sergeant
Melody Talbot. Their first case: a crime scene at a seedy hotel in
Crystal Palace. The victim: a well-respected barrister, found naked,
trussed, and apparently strangled. Is it an unsavory accident or murder?
In either case, he was not alone, and Gemma's team must find his
companion—a search that takes them into unexpected corners and forces
them to contemplate unsettling truths about the weaknesses and passions
that lead to murder. Ultimately, they will begin to question everything
they think they know about their world and those they trust most.

Builders of Hope

Publisher's Description: Builders of Hope rescues teardown housing and renovates it in place
or physically moves the structures, creating new neighborhoods wholly
comprised of recycled homes. Working directly with municipalities, the
nonprofit organization saves entire historic neighborhoods from the
wrecking ball during urban redevelopment. Each year, Builders of Hope
diverts millions of pounds of construction debris from landfills; turns
abandoned and blighted structures into attractive, affordable, and
energy-efficient homes; develops and revitalizes neighborhoods; and
provides “green-collar” job training for ex-offenders, the homeless,
and at-risk youth.

The Wall Street Journal writes that
Builders of Hope’s first community, Barrington Village in southeast
Raleigh, “might be the most politically correct housing development on
the planet.” The organization has enjoyed explosive growth and is now
redeveloping neighborhoods in Raleigh, Fuquay-Varina, Durham, Cary, and
Charlotte and reaching beyond North Carolina to New Orleans,
Louisiana, and Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas.

In Builders of Hope, Wanda Urbanska
chronicles the story of the pioneering organization from inception to
realization, showing how it has created a new paradigm for affordable
housing. Impressive before-and-after photographs and floor plans offer
insight into how Builders of Hope operates. Builders of Hope demonstrates
how Nancy Welsh’s original, audacious model of social entrepreneurism
offers a timely, environmentally sustainable, and economically feasible
solution for rebuilding America. The book will be published to
celebrate Builders of Hope’s fifth anniversary. Proceeds from book
sales will go toward funding its HopeWorks work-mentor program.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture

Publisher's Description: A unique combination of history, biography, and artistic techniques, the
clear narrative of this exciting series provides an overview of the
development of different types of art and artistic movements. These
colorful titles explore the roots and influences of different genres and
key components that define the style. In addition to discussing the
pioneers of the art, each subject-specific title considers the changes
the genre has undergone from its inception to its present status on the
world scene.Publisher's Book Page:http://www.gale.cengage.com/servlet/ItemDetailServlet?region=9&imprint=000&titleCode=LEAL&cf=p&type=3&id=264062

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The Icecutter's Daughter

Call No.: F PETPublisher's Description: As the lone female in a houseful of men, Merrill Krause dedicates her
life to caring for her family and their business, as her dying mother
asked. Besides, it suits her; she's never felt like she fits what most
people expect in a girl--she'd rather work with her father’s horses and
assist with the ice harvest. And though she’s been mostly content up to
this point, a part of her wonders if there will ever be anyone who will
notice her amid the bevy of brothers determined to protect her from any
possible suitors.

When Rurik Jorgenson arrives in their small Minnesota town to join
his uncle's carpentry business, he soon crosses paths with Merrill. But
unlike other men, who are often frightened away by her older brothers,
Rurik isn't intimidated by them or by Merrill's strength and lack of
femininity. The attraction between them begins to build...until Rurik's
former fiance shows up with wild claims that bring serious consequences
to Rurik.

Can Rurik and Merrill learn to trust God--and each other--when scandal threatens their newfound love?

Tracie Peterson's love for history and research fuel the bestselling
stories she writes. She is the author of more than ninety novels and the
recipient of the 2011 ACFW Lifetime Achievement Award. Tracie and her
family live in Montana.

African American Literature

Publisher's Description: African-American history is significant and integral to the larger history of the United States. Emboldening this dynamic, the Lucent Library of Black History
places important topics in context so that readers will understand the
connection between black history and the sweep of America?s story. This
high-quality series focuses on both broad movements like Black
Nationalism, as well as more narrowly defined events such as
Reconstruction.

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Need Tax Forms?

The library has FINALLY received its copy of 2012's "Reproducible Copies of Federal Tax Forms and Instructions." We're placing it on reserve until later this month when tax season has passed so that those who need a form can copy it (or scan it at the scanning station and print it via the computer lab).

The Blues

Publisher's Description: African-American history is significant and integral to the larger history of the United States. Emboldening this dynamic, the Lucent Library of Black History
places important topics in context so that readers will understand the
connection between black history and the sweep of America?s story. This
high-quality series focuses on both broad movements like Black
Nationalism, as well as more narrowly defined events such as
Reconstruction.

Monday, April 08, 2013

Baseball as a Road to God

Publisher's Description: For more than a decade, New York University President John Sexton has
used baseball to illustrate the elements of a spiritual life in a wildly
popular course at NYU. Using some of the great works of baseball
fiction as well as the actual game's fantastic moments, its legendary
characters, and its routine rituals—from the long-sought triumph of the
1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, to the heroic achievements of players like the
saintly Christy Mathewson and the sinful Ty Cobb, to the loving intimacy
of a game of catch between a father and son—Sexton teaches that through
the game we can touch the spiritual dimension of life.

Baseball as a Road to God is
about the elements of our lives that lie beyond what can be captured in
words alone—ineffable truths that we know by experience rather than by
logic or analysis. Applying to the secular activity of baseball a form
of inquiry usually reserved for the study of religion, Sexton reveals a
surprising amount of common ground between the game and what we all
recognize as religion: sacred places and time, faith and doubt,
blessings and curses, and more.

In thought-provoking,
beautifully rendered prose, this book elegantly demonstrates that
baseball is more than a game, or even a national pastime: It can be a
road to a deeper and more meaningful life.

Medieval European Art and Architecture

Publisher's Description: This new title in Lucent's Eye on Art series describes the major
artistic and architectural works of Europe's medieval era. The book
includes discussions of castles, cathedrals, and other large structures,
sculptures, paintings, mosaics, stained glass, tapestries, illuminated
manuscripts, and other artistic endeavors from this era. Also included
are descriptions of the Romanesque and Gothic styles.Publisher's Book Page:http://www.gale.cengage.com/servlet/ItemDetailServlet?region=9&imprint=000&titleCode=LEAL&cf=p&type=3&id=264911

Publisher's Description: This important new book sets the record straight on
the right of faith-based organizations to hire staff compatible with the
religious mission and vision of their programs.

Are faith-based social-service providers permitted to select staff based on religion if their programs receive government funds?

Despite what opponents would like to think, the
general freedom of religious groups to hire and fire on a religious
basis is only curtailed in some states and some localities and under
some federal laws if the group accepts government funds. There is no
general rule that requires faith-based organizations to give up this
important freedom when they use government funds to serve their
communities.

Why does the law often respect this important
religious freedom when religious organizations collaborate with
government and why should it always respect it? What are the policy
justifications for this so-called "job discrimination" and the
constitutional arguments? What difference does Charitable Choice make?

A new book by Carl Esbeck (Christian Legal Society and the University of Missouri Law School), Stanley Carlson-Thies (Center for Public Justice), and Ron Sider (Evangelicals for Social
Action) provides the analysis and arguments. The book also includes a
bibliography and excerpts of key federal statements and regulations that
provide helpful background.

Reader-Friendly Reports

Publisher's Description: The book that has taught thousands of students how to write winning business reports.

For more than 30 years, Carter A. Daniel has been teaching MBA
students at Rutgers University the art of effective business
communication with the aid of his eminently practical guide Reader-Friendly Reports.
Now available to the public for the first time, this beloved resource
gives you everything you need to translate your hard-won figures,
conclusions, and insights into concise and powerful reports. No
definition of communication, no history, no theory, no diagrams
Reader-Friendly Reports simply shows you how to:

Target your audience

Determine your purpose

Develop your points

Organize your ideas

Make smooth transitions

Conduct research

Illustrate with clear graphs and charts

Reader-Friendly Reports (the “Daniel Manual”) is the A to Z
guide to ensuring you meet your first priority: making sure people can
understand and remember your report from beginning to end.

Friday, April 05, 2013

Benediction

Haruf, Kent. Benediction. New York: Knopf, 2013.

Call no.: F HAR

Publisher's Description: From the beloved and best-selling author of Plainsong and Eventide comes a story of life and death, and the ties that bind, once again set out on the High Plains in Holt, Colorado.

When Dad Lewis is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he and his wife,
Mary, must work together to make his final days as comfortable as
possible. Their daughter, Lorraine, hastens back from Denver to help
look after him; her devotion softens the bitter absence of their
estranged son, Frank, but this cannot be willed away and remains a
palpable presence for all three of them. Next door, a young girl named
Alice moves in with her grandmother and contends with the painful
memories that Dad's condition stirs up of her own mother's death.
Meanwhile, the town’s newly arrived preacher attempts to mend his
strained relationships with his wife and teenaged son, a task that
proves all the more challenging when he faces the disdain of his
congregation after offering more than they are accustomed to getting on a
Sunday morning. And throughout, an elderly widow and her middle-aged
daughter do everything they can to ease the pain of their friends and
neighbors.

Despite the travails that each of these families
faces, together they form bonds strong enough to carry them through the
most difficult of times. Bracing, sad and deeply illuminating, Benediction captures
the fullness of life by representing every stage of it, including its
extinction, as well as the hopes and dreams that sustain us along the
way. Here Kent Haruf gives us his most indelible portrait yet of this
small town and reveals, with grace and insight, the compassion, the
suffering and, above all, the humanity of its inhabitants.
Publisher's Book Page:http://www.randomhouse.com/book/219368/benediction-by-kent-haruf

From the most successful bilingual dictionary range in North America
comes this dictionary that equips you with the medical terminology you
need to know to effectively communicate with Spanish-speaking patients.
This book is ideal for a wide range of professionals such as
physicians, nurses, physician's assistants, technicians, therapists, and
administrators. And you do not need any previous experience with
Spanish. You're ready to treat Spanish-speaking patients without
hesitation.
It includes:

38,000-plus headwords and 35,000 sub-entries

A complete grammar overview and verb charts

A guide to common idioms and slang

A phrasebook section that includes more than 250 phrases for interviewing and examining patients

Thursday, April 04, 2013

The Graves Are Walking

Kelly, John. The Graves Are Walking: The Great Famine and the Saga of the Irish People. New York: Henry Holt, 2012.

Call no.: 941.5081 K297g

Publisher's Description: A
magisterial account of the worst disasters to strike humankind—the
Great Irish Potato Famine—conveyed as lyrical narrative history from the
acclaimed author of The Great Mortality.

Deeply
researched, compelling in its details, and startling in its conclusions
about the appalling decisions behind a tragedy of epic proportions,
John Kelly’s retelling of the awful story of Ireland’s great hunger will
resonate today as history that speaks to our own times.

It
started in 1845 and before it was over more than one million men, women,
and children would die and another two million would flee the country.
Measured in terms of mortality, the Great Irish Potato Famine was the
worst disasters in the nineteenth century—it claimed twice as many lives
as the American Civil War. A perfect storm of bacterial infection,
political greed, and religious intolerance sparked this catastrophe. But
even more extraordinary than its scope were its political
underpinnings, and TheGraves Are Walking provides fresh
material and analysis on the role that Britain’s nation-building
policies played in exacerbating the devastation by attempting to use the
famine to reshape Irish society and character. Religious dogma,
anti-relief sentiment, and racial and political ideology combined to
result in an almost inconceivable disaster of human suffering.

This
is ultimately a story of triumph over perceived destiny: for fifty
million Americans of Irish heritage, the saga of a broken people fleeing
crushing starvation and remaking themselves in a new land is an
inspiring story of revival.

Based on extensive research and written with novelistic flair, The Graves Are Walking
draws a portrait that is both intimate and panoramic, that captures the
drama of individual lives caught up in an unimaginable tragedy, while
imparting a new understanding of the famine's causes and consequences.

The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat

Earl’s
All-You-Can-Eat is home away from home for this inseparable Plainview,
Indiana, trio. Dubbed “the Supremes” by high school pals in the
tumultuous 1960s, they weather life’s storms together for the next four
decades. Now, during their most challenging year yet, dutiful, proud,
and talented Clarice must struggle to keep up appearances as she deals
with her husband’s humiliating infidelities. Beautiful, fragile Barbara
Jean is rocked by the tragic reverberations of a youthful love affair.
And fearless Odette engages in the most terrifying battle of her life
while contending with the idea that she has inherited more than her
broad frame from her notorious pot-smoking mother, Dora.

Through
marriage, children, happiness, and the blues, these strong, funny women
gather each Sundayat the same table at Earl’s diner for delicious food,
juicy gossip, occasional tears, and uproarious banter.

Drugs and Drug Policy

Publisher's Description: While there have always been norms and customs around the use of drugs,
explicit public policies--regulations, taxes, and prohibitions--designed
to control drug abuse are a more recent phenomenon. Those policies
sometimes have terrible side-effects: most prominently the development
of criminal enterprises dealing in forbidden (or untaxed) drugs and the
use of the profits of drug-dealing to finance insurgency and terrorism.
Neither a drug-free world nor a world of free drugs seems to be on
offer, leaving citizens and officials to face the age-old problem: What
are we going to do about drugs?

In Drugs and Drug Policy, three noted authorities survey the subject with exceptional clarity, in this addition to the acclaimed series, What Everyone Needs to Know.
They begin by, defining "drugs," examining how they work in the brain,
discussing the nature of addiction, and exploring the damage they do to
users. The book moves on to policy, answering questions about
legalization, the role of criminal prohibitions, and the relative legal
tolerance for alcohol and tobacco. The authors then dissect the illicit
trade, from street dealers to the flow of money to the effect of
catching kingpins, and show the precise nature of the relationship
between drugs and crime. They examine treatment, both its effectiveness
and the role of public policy, and discuss the beneficial effects of
some abusable substances. Finally they move outward to look at the role
of drugs in our foreign policy, their relationship to terrorism, and the
ugly politics that surround the issue.

Crisp, clear, and comprehensive, this is a handy and up-to-date overview of one of the most pressing topics in today's world.

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

The Taste of War

Collingham, Lizzie. The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food. New York: Penguin, 2011.

Call no.: 940.531 C691t

Honors: New York Times Notable Book - 2012

Publisher's Description: Food, and in particular the lack of it, was central to the experience
of World War II. In this richly detailed and engaging history, Lizzie
Collingham establishes how control of food and its production is crucial
to total war. How were the imperial ambitions of Germany and Japan -
ambitions which sowed the seeds of war - informed by a desire for
self-sufficiency in food production? How was the outcome of the war
affected by the decisions that the Allies and the Axis took over how to
feed their troops? And how did the distinctive ideologies of the
different combatant countries determine their attitudes towards those
they had to feed?

Tracing the interaction between food and
strategy, on both the military and home fronts, this gripping, original
account demonstrates how the issue of access to food was a driving force
within Nazi policy and contributed to the decision to murder hundreds
of thousands of 'useless eaters' in Europe. Focusing on both the winners
and losers in the battle for food, The Taste of War brings to
light the striking fact that war-related hunger and famine was not only
caused by Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, but was also the result of
Allied mismanagement and neglect, particularly in India, Africa and
China.

American dominance both during and after the war was not
only a result of the United States' immense industrial production but
also of its abundance of food. This book traces the establishment of a
global pattern of food production and distribution and shows how the war
subsequently promoted the pervasive influence of American food habits
and tastes in the post-war world. A work of great scope, The Taste of War connects the broad sweep of history to its intimate impact upon the lives of individuals. Publisher's Book Page:http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9781594203299,00.html?The_Taste_of_War_Lizzie_Collingham#

Reclaiming Our Food

Publisher's Description:Reclaiming Our Food
tells the stories of people across the United States who are finding
new ways to grow, process, and distribute food for their own
communities. It is a practical guide for building a local food system.
Where others have made the case for the local food movement, Reclaiming Our Food
shows how communities are actually making it happen. This book offers a
wealth of information on how to make local food a practical and
affordable part of everyone's daily fare.

The projects described
in this book are cropping up everywhere, from urban lots to rural
communities and everywhere in between. In Portland, Oregon, an
organization called Growing Gardens installs home gardens for low-income
families and hosts follow-up workshops for the owners. Lynchburg Grows,
in Lynchburg, Virginia, bought an abandoned 6.5-acre urban greenhouse
business and turned it into an organic farm that offers jobs to people
with disabilities and sells its food through a local farmers' market and
a CSA. Sunburst Trout Farm, a small family business in rural North
Carolina, is showing that it's possible to raise fish sustainably and
sell to a local market. And in Asheville, North Carolina, Growing Minds
is finding ways to help bring fresh foods into schools.

Author
Tanya Denckla Cobb offers lessons and advice straight from innovative
food leaders of more than 50 food projects across the United States.
Photographic essays of 11 community food projects, by acclaimed
photographer Jason Houston, detail the unusual work of these projects,
bringing it to life in unforgettable images.

Sum It Up

Publisher's Book Description: Pat Summitt, the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history aad bestselling author of Reach for the Summitt and Raise The Roof,
tells for the first time her remarkable story of victory and resilience
as well as facing down her greatest challenge: early-onset Alzheimer's
disease.Pat Summitt was only 21 when she became head coach
of the Tennessee Vols women's basketball team. For 38 years, she has
broken records, winning more games than any NCAA team in basketball
history. She has coached an undefeated season, co-captained the first
women's Olympic team, was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and
has been named Sports Illustrated 'Sportswoman of the Year'.She
owes her coaching success to her personal struggles and triumphs. She
learned to be tough from her strict, demanding father. Motherhood taught
her to balance that rigidity with communication and kindness. She is a
role model for the many women she's coached; 74 of her players have
become coaches.Pat's life took a shocking turn in 2011, when she was
diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, an irreversible brain
condition that affects 5 million Americans. Despite her devastating
diagnosis, she led the Vols to win their sixteenth SEC championship in
March 2012. Pat continues to be a fighter, facing this new challenge the
way she's faced every other--with hard work, perseverance, and a sense
of humor.